Susanne is available for hire

Susanne Kreuz

Verified Expert in Design

Designer

Malmö, Sweden

Toptal member since July 8, 2020

Expertise

UX Design B2B Design Web Design UI Design Information Architecture User Flow Design Usability Testing Wireframing SaaS Design Graphic Design Salesforce Design SharePoint Design Axure

Bio

Susanne is a seasoned UX researcher and design strategist with extensive knowledge of the end-to-end development process. From exploration to product validation, she has successfully worked on numerous projects in startups and global tech companies. With a background in psychology, she knows how to ask the right questions and make sense of complex topics. Susanne loves to collaborate in agile teams to test prototypes with users and create a strong UX vision to turn ideas into smart features.

Experience

Prototyping - 15 years
Usability Testing - 15 years
SaaS Design - 13 years
Workshop Facilitation - 10 years
Product Vision - 10 years
User Research - 10 years
User Journeys - 10 years
Figma - 8 years

Portfolio

Hello World

UX DesignUser ResearchService DesignUX StrategyTestingService Blueprinting+ 23 more

Verivox—Improving the Usability of an Online Portal

Usability TestingRemote Usability TestingExpert ReviewsPortalsHeuristic AnalysisHeuristic Evaluation+ 81 more

Secret Escapes—Preparing A/B Testing with the Help of Usability Testing

A/B TestingConversion Rate Optimization (CRO)Remote User TestingRemote Usability TestingResearch SynthesisUsability Testing+ 66 more

Deutsche Bahn—Validating Hypotheses Through A/B Testing of a Booking Portal

Design ValidationA/B TestingPersonasPersonalizationUsabilityAxure RP Pro+ 149 more

BORM-INFORMATIK AG—Applying UX Design to Improve an ERP System

Axure RP ProUser ResearchDesign ThinkingGoogle Design SprintsAgile TransformationResearch Synthesis+ 188 more

Kaptio Travel :: Designing a Booking Feature for A Travel App Based on Salesforce

User FeedbackAxure RP ProClick DummiesLow-fidelity PrototypesSalesforcePersonas+ 85 more

OB/CC :: Prototyping a Mobile Shopping  App

AppsUsability TestingDesign ThinkingConceptual DesignPrototyping on Paper (POP)User Testing+ 97 more

BOSCH Automotive: How to Design a Design Sprint?

PersonasGoogle Design SprintsUX WorkshopsJobs to be Done (JTBD)Story MappingInformation Architecture (IA)+ 73 more

Work Experience

Founder

2015 - PRESENT

Susanne Kreuz :: UX Research, Design, and Strategy (Freelance)

Collaborated and engaged with people from a wide background and with a different knowledge. My focus is on analysis, research, and testing for web and mobile apps. I spread the word about UX topics and methods in design-related blogs.
Facilitated 3-5 day seminars and Google Design Sprints—onsite Europe and remote. My target group is an international audience of product and graphic designers, project managers, developers, and content writers.
Reviewed given scenarios according to common usability heuristics for an online portal to compare service providers such as telecommunication or power suppliers and sign the best contract. For details, see the VERIVOX project in my portfolio.
Created hypothesis and test variants for the analytics team to run quantitative A/B testing and optimize the conversion rate of the website for the German railway transport company DB. For details, see the Deutsche Bahn project in my portfolio.
Designed an intuitive user interface and user-friendly interactions for a B2B Salesforce web app for the travel industry. For details, see the Kaptio project in my portfolio.
Trained and skilled up a web agency's team with UX methods, guided them through the conception process, and innovated ideas for the interaction and interface design of two new mobile consumer apps. For details, see the OB//CC project in my portfolio.
Redesigned a mobile consumer app and invented a new concept and information architecture.
Identified pain points in a big telecommunication eCommerce shop and order process with the help of an expert review. My recommendations helped product managers and concepters to improve the user experience and developers to fix bugs.

Technologies: UX Pattern Design, Information Architecture (IA), UX Strategy, Process Flows, Sketch, WordPress, High-fidelity Prototypes, Mockups, User Flows, Figma, Affinity Designer, Slack, Jira, Affinity Photo, Adobe Suite, HTML, Axure, User Experience (UX), UX Research, UX Wireframes, Design Sprints, User Validation, Quantitative Research, Research Reports, Workshops, Surveys, Journey Mapping, Innovation, Product Strategy, Web UX, Design Research, SaaS, Strategy, Instructional Design, Navigation, SharePoint, Intranets, Information Systems, Learning, Roadmaps, Empathy Mapping, Employee Experience, Digital Transformation, ServiceNow, Content Management Systems (CMS), Curriculum Design, Curriculum Development, Vendor Selection, Digital Publishing, Web App Design, Onboarding, Rapid Interactive Prototyping, SaaS Design, Dashboard Design, Web UI, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, Writing & Editing, Branding, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Discovery Workshops, Responsive Web Apps, Web App UX, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Fintech, App Design, Banking & Finance, Rapid Prototyping, Mobile UX Design, Content, Quantitative User Research, Lean UX, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Software as a Service (SaaS), Axure RP Pro, UI Design, Mobile Prototypes, Interactive Prototypes, UX Prototyping, Planning, Content Marketing, Task Flows, Customer Research, Customer Analysis, Business Requirements, System Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Client Interviews, Customer Interviews, Scrum, Product Journeys, Data Analysis, Shopper Journeys, Business Analysis, Design Guidelines, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Online Surveys, Kanban, Story Mapping, Heuristic Evaluation, Heuristic Analysis, Click Dummies, Training, Workshop Facilitation, User Interface (UI), Material Design, Digital Product Design, Stakeholder Management, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), B2B, Web App UI, Content Strategy, Sitemaps, Team Leadership, Process Optimization, UX Mentoring, Competitive Analysis, Market Research & Analysis, Usertesting.com, Market Research, eCommerce UX, Web, Login & Registration, User Research, Data Synthesis, Process Mapping, User Requirements, Experience Maps, Design Reviews, Creative Strategy, Design Leadership, Web Application Design, Edtech Design, Product Design, App UX, Conversational UX, Enterprise SaaS, Figma Component Library, Web Design, Automation, Testing, Service Blueprinting, Project Management, Learning & Development, Product Vision, Product Discovery, Iterative Design, Requirements, Employee Training, Reports, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cross-functional Collaboration, Field Research, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, Reporting, Technical SEO, Web Accessibility, Accessibility, Presentations, UX Consulting, User Experience Design, UX Design, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Call Centers, B2C, Proof of Concept (POC), Enterprise Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Applications, Dashboards, Web UI Design, SharePoint Designer, Data Visualization, CRM, Qualitative Research, Executive Communication, Qualitative User Research, UI Testing, UX Testing, Product Analytics, AI Design, AI-powered Product Design, UI Audits, Workflow Analysis, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Web Applications

Workshop Facilitator & Trainer

2015 - 2025

Social projects & Volunteering

Contributed my UX research and design skills to social projects and NGOs. Taught German in refugee camps, which made me confident in training intercultural teams in collaborative design for the SINGA Factory program.
Prepared training, coached participants, and offered interactive workshops on customer experience and user-centered design to people from Africa, Asia, and South America.
Created personas and mapped customer journeys together with members of our co-working community at the Impact Hub to bring new business ideas alive and innovate products and services.
Valued innovation through diversity highly as the main incubator for creativity and saw co-creation processes as the fundament for participation in democracy.
Worked with other NGOs such as Mannheim Sagt Ja e.V. since 2015 and redesigned and relaunched their WordPress website. Also contributed stories about the NGO's activities that helped raise funds and promote success.
Helped host the co-working and event spaces as a Hubonaut volunteer at the Impact Hub Zurich. Supported the network of creatives, startups, and techies, connecting entrepreneurs, NGOs, companies, public institutions, and change-makers.
Improved our volunteer experience by talking to the team, members, and clients. My comic-style storyboard with scenes from a volunteer's daily tasks evolved into a journey map to visualize problems and find solutions.
Proposed a shared Google calendar—in a smart and entertaining way—to staff the shifts and prevent no-shows at the three co-working locations in Zurich.

Technologies: Miro, Apple Keynote, Figma, Project Management, Learning & Development, Product Vision, Product Discovery, Iterative Design, Employee Training, Cross-functional Collaboration, Presentations, UX Consulting, User Experience Design, UX Design, B2C, Proof of Concept (POC), Enterprise Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Programs, Loyalty Applications, Qualitative Research, Executive Communication, Qualitative User Research, UX Testing, Analytics, Customer Experience (CX) Design

Senior UX Designer

2019 - 2021

BORM-Informatik AG, Switzerland

Introduced human-centered design and facilitated collaborative workshops such as Google Design Sprint to make non-designers quickly familiar with iterative prototyping and testing and build the ERP and CAD system according to the user's needs.
Defined an end-to-end process so that UX activities fit into agile development sprints. Invented the "BORM to be wild" slogan and logo to communicate and brand all UX design activities in a smart way.
Trained customer project leads and developers in customer-centricity and provided best practices on how to create scenarios, business workflows, and processes based on storytelling and sketching.
Analyzed the usability of shipped features and reviewed the existing UX and UI design against common usability heuristics and UX and UI design standards. Identified and prioritized issues and proposed solutions and fixes.
Discovered personas, use cases, and user stories with the help of interviewing business experts and partners, competitor analysis, and market research.
Discussed and prioritized requirements with the product manager and my development team. Created epics and user stories in Jira and refined stories regularly by breaking content into smaller tasks to plan sprints and develop features accordingly.
Ideated solutions, and prototyped and tested flows and interactions for a new digital creditor workflow that supports Swiss QR codes. The paperless process enables accountants, project leads, and managing directors to control and pay invoices.
Developed the BORM UX vision, created a UX strategy, and built a goal-oriented roadmap. Provided five guiding principles to unify the design of all products and devices, and guarantee one consistent and seamless user experience.
Involved partners from the timber industry in the early stage of the product design process and validated design ideas by user testing of comic style concepts, user flows, and wireframes. Moderated (remote) usability tests of interactive prototypes.
Invented a project poster with a structured approach, addressing problem-oriented questions to identify user groups, their needs, and tasks. The goal was to ensure that business requirements were user-centered, transparent, and understood.

Technologies: UX Pattern Design, UX Strategy, Process Flows, UX Prototyping, Interactive Prototypes, High-fidelity Prototypes, Mockups, UI Design, Paper Prototyping, Miro, User Flows, Teams, Microsoft, Slack, Confluence, Jira, Affinity Designer, Balsamiq, Axure, User Experience (UX), UX Research, Mobile Design, UX Wireframes, Design Sprints, User Validation, Quantitative Research, Research Reports, Workshops, Surveys, Journey Mapping, Innovation, Product Strategy, Web UX, Design Research, Strategy, Navigation, Intranets, Information Systems, Learning, Roadmaps, Empathy Mapping, Employee Experience, Digital Transformation, Vendor Selection, Web App Design, Rapid Interactive Prototyping, Dashboard Design, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, Writing & Editing, Branding, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Discovery Workshops, Responsive Web Apps, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Mobile App Design, App Design, Rapid Prototyping, User Interface (UI), Mobile UX Design, Quantitative User Research, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Software as a Service (SaaS), Axure RP Pro, Mobile Prototypes, Planning, Task Flows, Customer Research, Customer Analysis, Business Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Client Interviews, Customer Interviews, Product Journeys, Data Analysis, Business Analysis, Design Guidelines, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Online Surveys, Kanban, Story Mapping, Heuristic Evaluation, Heuristic Analysis, Click Dummies, Training, Workshop Facilitation, Material Design, Digital Product Design, Stakeholder Management, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), B2B, Web App UI, Sitemaps, Team Leadership, Process Optimization, UX Mentoring, Competitive Analysis, Market Research & Analysis, Market Research, Web, User Research, Data Synthesis, Manufacturing, Process Mapping, User Requirements, Experience Maps, Design Reviews, Creative Strategy, Design Leadership, Web Application Design, Education Technology (Edtech), Product Design, App UX, Enterprise SaaS, Figma Component Library, Web Design, Automation, Testing, Project Management, Learning & Development, Product Vision, Product Discovery, Iterative Design, Requirements, Employee Training, Reports, Cross-functional Collaboration, Field Research, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, Reporting, Technical SEO, Web Accessibility, Accessibility, Presentations, UX Consulting, User Experience Design, UX Design, Dashboards, CRM, Qualitative Research, Executive Communication, Qualitative User Research, UI Testing, UX Testing, Analytics, Product Analytics, UI Audits, Workflow Analysis, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Web Applications

UX Researcher

2018 - 2019

Crowdhouse AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Created interview guidelines and conducted qualitative interviews with people selling real estate, such as private house owners, semi-professional investors, and professional brokers.
Set up in-house and remote usability tests for people selling real estate. Applied guerrilla methods and conducted hallway tests with internal colleagues to collect feedback on the relaunched website.
Recruited end-users to learn about the Swiss real estate market through customer-facing events and a landing page. Worked together with an external agency to recruit test users for persona interviews.
Facilitated workshops with the product owner and my squad team to ideate new features for the web platform. Collected assumptions and hypotheses to write user stories and create the product roadmap.
Created reports to share my research findings and presented insights to the English-speaking product team. Translated content and helped to build a bridge with the Swiss German-speaking business team.
Gathered information from stakeholders and created a customer journey of private people selling a multi-apartment house.
Developed a process to integrate user research activities into my squad team's agile UX design process and roll out in the company.
Discovered and tested research tools to professionally manage the user research pool and researcher's activities.

Technologies: Research Synthesis, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Dovetail, Lookback, Slack, Axure, User Experience (UX), UX Research, User Validation, Quantitative Research, Research Reports, Workshops, Surveys, Journey Mapping, Innovation, Product Strategy, Web UX, Design Research, Strategy, Roadmaps, Empathy Mapping, Digital Transformation, ServiceNow, Web App Design, Onboarding, Web UI, Investing, Writing & Editing, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Web App UX, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Fintech, App Design, Lean UX, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Software as a Service (SaaS), Planning, Customer Research, Customer Analysis, Client Interviews, Customer Interviews, Lean Development, Data Analysis, Lean Research, Business Analysis, Real Estate, Kanban, Portals, Stakeholder Management, Web App UI, Process Optimization, Competitive Analysis, Market Research & Analysis, Market Research, Web, Login & Registration, User Research, Data Synthesis, Process Mapping, Design Reviews, Web Application Design, App UX, Conversational UX, Web Design, Testing, Project Management, Product Vision, Reports, User Interface (UI), Cross-functional Collaboration, Field Research, Qualitative Analysis, Quantitative Analysis, Reporting, Technical SEO, Web Accessibility, Accessibility, User Experience Design, UX Design, B2C, Proof of Concept (POC), Web UI Design, Qualitative Research, Consumer Insights, Qualitative User Research, UI Testing, UX Testing, Analytics, Product Analytics, UI Audits, Workflow Analysis, Customer Experience (CX) Design, Web Applications

Senior Information Developer

2013 - 2015

SAP SE, Walldorf/Baden, Germany

Innovated user assistance and created a proof of concepts with my products and innovations team. Worked closely with product owners, UX design strategists, and business data analysts in an agile environment to match people's needs and expectations.
Designed an additional layer that integrates contextual help on the SaaS UI to support users best after discovering that people struggled when using web apps built on SAP HANA Cloud.
Managed a team of information developers located in Germany, the UK, and Canada, while the agile development teams were located around the globe.
Created a workstream in Jira and contributed the know-how to an internal wiki to exchange information and make decisions transparent while communicating with people across many cultures and time zones.
Defined the terminology, reviewed UI texts, and created online help. I migrated content to XML and restructured topics and guides according to the new information architecture and authoring guidelines.
Created and published several case studies about UX design, strategy, and design thinking methods on their website.

Technologies: Information Architecture (IA), Balsamiq Mockups, Software as a Service (SaaS), Process Flows, UX Prototyping, Paper Prototyping, Miro, Story Mapping, User Flows, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Balsamiq, XML, SAP, User Experience (UX), Content, User Validation, Workshops, Surveys, Innovation, Product Strategy, Web UX, SaaS, Instructional Design, Navigation, SharePoint, Intranets, Information Systems, Learning, Roadmaps, Empathy Mapping, Employee Experience, Digital Transformation, Publishing, Curriculum Design, Curriculum Development, Vendor Selection, Digital Publishing, Curriculum Development & Delivery, SaaS Design, Dashboard Design, Web UI, Writing & Editing, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Web App UX, Fintech, App Design, Banking & Finance, Lean UX, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Planning, Customer Research, Customer Analysis, Business Requirements, System Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Client Interviews, Customer Interviews, Scrum, Product Journeys, Business Analysis, Design Guidelines, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Kanban, Portals, Digital Product Design, Stakeholder Management, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), B2B, Web App UI, Content Strategy, Sitemaps, Team Leadership, Process Optimization, Web, User Research, Journey Mapping, Data Synthesis, Process Mapping, User Requirements, Experience Maps, Design Reviews, Web Application Design, Education Technology (Edtech), Edtech Design, Conversational UX, Enterprise SaaS, Web Design, Automation, Testing, Project Management, Learning & Development, Employee Training, Technical Writing, User Interface (UI), Cross-functional Collaboration, Qualitative Analysis, Web Accessibility, Accessibility, Presentations, UX Consulting, User Experience Design, UX Design, B2C, Content Design, Dashboards, Web UI Design, SharePoint Designer, CRM, Big Data, UX Testing, UI Audits, Workflow Analysis, Web Applications

Founder

2003 - 2013

Edox Technical Communication, Heidelberg, Germany (Freelance)

Documented complex business software for global companies such as SAP, their partners, and customers. I created structured content according to the user's goals and applied a personalized, conversational communication style.
Helped product and development teams remotely and onsite to improve their documentation deliverables and processes. I have tested, chosen, and implemented many content management systems to automate online publishing.
Contributed with content to large websites and supported relaunch projects by simplifying the language and navigation. I created marketing material for newsletters and landing pages.
Strengthened relationships with journalists and discovered new media channels. I helped to grow the market for products such as INGRADA, a geographical information system for professionals and citizens.
Interviewed stakeholders and researched information about digital products and trends. My articles and advertorials have regularly been published in print and online, in special interest magazines and web portals.

Technologies: Information Architecture (IA), WordPress, Adobe Illustrator, User Flows, Content Management Systems (CMS), Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, XML, Microsoft Word, User Experience (UX), Instructional Design, Navigation, Roadmaps, Empathy Mapping, Publishing, Curriculum Design, Curriculum Development, Vendor Selection, Digital Publishing, Curriculum Development & Delivery, Writing & Editing, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Fintech, Content, Planning, Content Marketing, SEO Content, Customer Analysis, Requirements & Specifications, Client Interviews, Customer Interviews, Scrum, Business Analysis, Portals, Stakeholder Management, Complex Application User Interfaces (UI), B2B, Web App UI, Content Strategy, Sitemaps, Process Optimization, Web, Process Mapping, Education Technology (Edtech), Edtech Design, Enterprise SaaS, Web Design, Project Management, Learning & Development, Technical Writing, User Interface (UI), Technical SEO, Presentations, UX Design, B2C, Content Design, CRM, Executive Communication, UI Audits

Technical Writer Software

2001 - 2003

ibo Software GmbH Wettenberg, Germany

Documented business software for different target groups such as end-users and consultants. Created and published online help and manuals, FAQs, installation guides, and release notes.
Worked closely with business and end-users from the industry to define the terminology and information architecture. Consulted translators to ensure a good match with other languages.
Developed a style guide for authors to ensure consistency in wording and brand language.
Explored several content management systems to transform the authoring process from print to online publishing and created a SWOT analysis to choose the best.
Created training material and reference cards for key users in the financial industry.

Technologies: Information Architecture (IA), Process Flows, Adobe Illustrator, User Flows, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Office, XML, User Experience (UX), Instructional Design, Navigation, Employee Experience, Publishing, Curriculum Design, Curriculum Development, Digital Publishing, Curriculum Development & Delivery, Writing & Editing, User Behavior, System Process Mapping, Flow Diagrams, Banking & Finance, Content, Planning, Content Marketing, System Requirements, B2B, Process Optimization, Web, Education Technology (Edtech), Edtech Design, Enterprise SaaS, Project Management, Learning & Development, Technical Writing, Cross-functional Collaboration, B2C, Content Design

Education

1995 - 1998

Master's Degree in Art History, Psychology, European Ethnology

Philipps University - Marburg, Germany

1989 - 1994

Coursework in Art History, Psychology

Justus Liebig University - Gießen, Germany

Certifications

MAY 2015 - PRESENT

UX Designer

CareerFoundry, Berlin, Germany

FEBRUARY 2002 - PRESENT

Technical Writer

Technical Academy, Esslingen, Germany

FEBRUARY 2001 - PRESENT

Publishing Assistant/Marketing

Klett WBS, Frankfurt, Germany

Skills

Tools

Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Confluence, Miro, Balsamiq Mockups, Axure RP Pro, Jira, Slack, Balsamiq, Lookback, Prototyping on Paper (POP), Usertesting.com, Figma Component Library, CAD, Microsoft PowerPoint, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, SharePoint Designer, Sketch, Optimizely, Manufacturing, Apple Keynote

Platforms

Adobe Suite, Microsoft, Figma, Axure, Web, Salesforce, Mobile, WordPress, SharePoint, Dovetail

Industry Expertise

Banking & Finance, Education Technology (Edtech), Real Estate

Languages

Hire Thousands More Designers

in the Toptal Network

Get Started

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.